This is a pretty simple one – one that I won’t claim to have initially “discovered”, but one that I will single-out, and even enhance, as something that every multiplayer Xbox Live Arcade title should not be without. That one thing is:

The Quarter Mode.

Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting was announced earlier this year as an XBL Arcade title with online multiplayer and would feature “quarter matches” that would enable players to join their friends in a lobby and play in “winner-stays” tournaments. In otherwords, they join a game, put up their “quarter”, and everyone plays the winner in that order.

This is a brilliant concept, one that I would consider a system seller as much as XBL Arcade itself. But how cool would it be to join in a group of, say, eight friends who all go round-robin on Geometry Wars? Full chat capabilities in-game, and everyone is a spectator on the current game until it is their turn. Just like our arcade experiences during our youth. This would be the ultimate party game.

Taking it one step further, a multiplayer option could be a “bank” of quarters. So say everyone who joins the “arcade” (lobby) would start with a roll of quarters. They would use a quarter, maybe two, per credit. This could be fully customizable by the arcade host, to determine the length of each arcade match. When they lose, they would have to put up quarters for another credit. Just like in a real arcade. When they are out of quarters, they can only spectate and chat during matches.

This concept would fit well in the Achievements model. Obviously a party would play until there is only one person standing. An Achievement could be given for X amount of times a person comes out on top. What about an Achievement for X amount of times going undefeated; or the opposite of that, losing the entire roll of quarters? Or maybe an “Underdog” Achievement, where you consistently knocked off the winner?

In addition, for each lobby, stats would be recorded much like Halo 2, so you can look at every lobby you played in and see the stats for each – games won, highest score, etc.

If future games would offer this multiplayer and party functionality, Xbox Live Arcade would be even more addictive. Beware!